Best Chocolatier

Christophe Artisan Chocolatier

Readers Pick

There’s a reason the word artisan features in Christophe Paume’s chocolate shop title. It’s because Paume truly is an artist. The man can mold chocolate into high heels. Really. We’ve seen him do it. But it’s not just kitschy molds he employs. Paume — a third-generation French chocolatier — is a master pastry chef whose tiny Society Street shop is like stepping into something on the Left Bank of Paris. From hand-painted truffles to chocolate macaroons, sable vennois to rocher, Paume brings a European eye to everything he produces, and Charleston tastes remarkably better because of it.